Researchers find way to make food salty using less salt, study finds

Researchers from Washington State University recently conducted a study, published in the Journal of Food Science, to explore ways to make food taste salty with less sodium chloride, which has been tied to poor health.

For their assessment, they examined salt blends that use less sodium chloride, including calcium chloride and potassium chloride.

Once the team determined what blends they would evaluate, they solicited the help of a taste panel who tried a variety of salt combinations, which were used in water and tomato soup.

After analyzing the results, they found using a blend that contained 96.4 percent sodium chloride with 1.6 percent potassium chloride and 2 percent calcium chloride was the “ideal reduction,” the authors said in a statement.

They noted they were able to reduce the sodium chloride even more when they only used calcium chloride, but it only received “acceptable rates.” That combination contained 78 percent sodium chloride and 22 percent calcium chloride.